Strawberries and creme, champagne, white uniforms, and tennis. These four words all point to one sporting event. As our wonderful British tour guide stated, “There is no sports event in the world more recognizable than Wimbledon”. Every July, people from all around the world come to the Wimbledon tennis tournament to watch stars like Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray compete for glory. On January 29th, we paid a visit to the world renowned Wimbledon.
We first participated in an interactive talk featuring our engaging tour guide. During this talk, we learned all about the Wimbledon brand and marketing strategy. People come to Wimbledon to experience the elite stars play tennis, eat strawberries and creme, drink champagne, and most importantly the culture of the United Kingdom. They come to see the gardens, flowers, tennis competition, and enjoy the overall scenery. Ticket prices for Wimbledon are surprisingly cheap (26 pounds to get into the ground), and you can even get into the championship match for only 240 pounds, provided you are selected in the random ballot draw. The reasoning behind the low pricing is to make sure that the normal person can attend and grow the game of tennis. Hopefully one day a child that goes to Wimbledon will pursue tennis and become the next great star. Meanwhile for guaranteed seats on center court, you will have to pay 80,000 pounds for a 5 year membership. Over the course of 5 years of Wimbledon matches, each match would be around 1100 pounds.
After the talk, we then began the tour. Our first stop was a visit to a few of the 18 tennis courts used in the Wimbledon championship. The finest of them all was center court where the final round to determine the winner of 2.4 million pounds. Center court as well as court #2 has a retractable roof installed allowing play to continue during rain as well as at night.
Our next stop was a visit to BBC broadcasting. Where the tennis matches are streamed live. Our tour guide mentioned something very important. People are now tuning into tennis matches on social media now more than ever to watch Wimbledon matches. We then moved on to the player’s quarters, where the players could relax, grab a bite, make travel arrangements, and even get a haircut to look sharp on the court. We also checked out the press conference room, where players are mandated to answer questions for 20 minutes after a match if they are chosen to do so.
Our final destination was the Wimbledon Museum, where the trophies are housed. Overall Wimbledon was a great experience and embodiment of British culture. Definitely worth a visit back when Serena Williams is actually playing in a match.